About Me

70 now and our five wonderful years aboard our narrowboat Skyy seem along time ago. Jacquie, allowed me to build my replica three wheeler kit car, which was a great success. Now it's time to start on a bigger project and that is to make a good Triumph Stag even better, here goes.

Monday, 6 April 2009

THE BLACK BOTTOM

MONDAY 23RD TO THURSDAY 26TH MARCH 2009

The weather wasn’t as balmy as last week, but I was determined to black as much of the bottom of SKYY above the waterline as possible. Firstly I used a stiff broom to brush away as much as possible of the weed growth and muck, above and below the water line. With the water tank nearly empty, an empty gas bottle and no coal stored in the front lockers the bow was quite high and using a foam roller I was able to apply the bitumen right down to the waterline. Sometimes the roller touched the water, but it didn’t affect the application of the bitumen, any water picked up just beaded on the surface and dried up without leaving any marks.

I poled the boat from my pontoon over to an empty space on the opposite pontoon, allowing me to do both sides. After a new propane cylinder was installed, the water tank filled and three bags of coal loaded on, the new bitumen extended below the waterline and until we take the boat out onto the cut and through the first lock the shiny black hull will look very smart.

I also took the opportunity to repaint below the gunnels and the rubbing strakes and re-varnish the front cratch boards and now SKYY is almost ready to go, it only remains to get the ingrained paint off my hands, I really should wear latex gloves instead of using white spirit to get the paint off as it makes my hands so rough!!!